Objection overruled

Letters

Posted: Friday, December 15, 2000

By A letterNINA MOLLETT

Our clever new way of selecting presidents - by a vote of the Supreme Court - ought to be codified into law (quick, quick, while we still have a GOP Senate). It has many advantages. It accomplishes campaign finance reform in one fell swoop, as the candidates will no longer need to raise obscene piles of money and waste their time and ours campaigning for votes in the cornfields of Kansas and the jungles of Florida.

And it accomplishes the election reform we suddenly have realized we desperately need. No longer will we have to struggle over counting millions of votes: counting nine is a piece of cake.

Some might object that this would create a one-party system and might even perpetuate a Bush family dynasty - George W. would be re-selected and then Jeb and then who knows - after 16 years one of the Bush offspring, currently enjoying their indiscreet youths, might be ready to run by the bench.

These naysayers worry that by then the fully packed Scalia Court will be issuing decisions which will entirely strip us of our civil rights. But we can be reassured by the calm voice of Justice Clarence Thomas, who told a group of high school students on Tuesday that party affiliation has zero influence on the court.